The quartet of Middle East mediators is expected to back US plans to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace moves and hear from new special envoy Tony Blair when it meets in Portugal on Thursday.
It will be the first session bringing together top diplomats from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations since Hamas took over Gaza last month and US-supported Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formed a caretaker government in the West Bank.
"It's a good opportunity for them to get together, take stock of what has happened over the past couple weeks, as well as to look ahead and chart a course out for the next several months," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The meeting will mark Blair's first appearance as quartet special envoy. The former British prime minister's mandate is to help build up Palestinian institutions and encourage economic development but some diplomats want him involved in peacemaking, a role dominated by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and one that Washington wants her to keep.
"There are mixed feelings in the Bush administration about how much rope Tony Blair should get," said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst now at the Brookings Institution.
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